Chapter 1 – Report of the Policy, Law and Complaints Group relevant agencies should review the current laws and legislation, for example in terms of the age of criminal responsibility and the punishment of whipping; (vii) The scope of Section 17(2) of the Child Act 2001 should be expanded to include any form of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children. The participants reiterated that a specific provision should be included that expressly gives the Child Act primacy over other laws where children are concerned; and (viii) There was a suggestion for the relevant agencies such as the Ministry of Education and the Social Welfare Department to review their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), guidelines, policies and teachers’ training modules in order to introduce alternative methods of disciplining children. Various pertinent points regarding the right to acquire nationality were raised by the participants. They include the following: (i) It was noted that the ultimate obstacle for the removal of this reservation was the complexity surrounding the issue of citizenship, in particular whether registration is interpreted as automatic conferment of Malaysian citizenship; (ii) The MWFCD invited the participants to consider the definition of ‘to acquire nationality’ and further suggested that it meant that all individuals have the opportunity to apply for citizenship as opposed to automatic conferment. Thus, it could be used as a justification for the removal of the said reservation; (iii) There was a suggestion to establish a list to differentiate various types of situations. The proposed list of categories submitted by the participants included: • • • • • • Children born of Malaysian parents; Children with one Malaysian parent; Children who were born in Malaysia but have no personal documents; Religious categorization, i.e. Muslim and Non-Muslim children; Children born of foreigners; and Adopted children. (iv) The discretionary power of the Minister as enshrined under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution should be exercised instead of rejecting all the applications out of hand; Discretionary power of the Minister as enshrined under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution should be fairly and equally exercised instead of rejecting all the applications 49 BOOK-ANR2016-01-latest.indb 49 08/04/2016 3:32 PM